The Art of Dreaming

The Art of Dreaming

Cover of HarperPerennial edition(paperback)
Author Carlos Castaneda
Country United States
Language English
Genre Memoir
Publisher HarperCollins
Publication date
1994
Media type Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages 260
ISBN 0-06-092554-X
OCLC 30675210
Preceded by The Power of Silence
Followed by Magical Passes

The Art of Dreaming is a book written by anthropologist Carlos Castaneda and published in 1993.[1] It details events and techniques during a period of the author's apprenticeship with the Yaqui Indian Sorcerer, don Juan Matus, between 1960 and 1965.

Summary

The Art of Dreaming describes the steps needed to master the control and consciousness of dreams. The Toltecs of Don Juan Matus' lineage believed that there are seven barriers to awareness, which they termed The Seven Gates of Dreaming. In The Art of Dreaming Castaneda describes extensively how a state called Total Awareness can be achieved by means of dreaming.

According to Castaneda there are 7 Gates of Dreaming, or obstacles to awareness, which when overcome yield total awareness. Four of the Gates of Dreaming are discussed in The Art of Dreaming. What follows is not so much a technique in achieving lucidity, but rather the practical application of lucid dreaming. By acting a certain way while dreaming, one can cause psychosomatic changes in one's being, including an alternate way of dying.

What follows is a point-form summary of the philosophy surrounding Toltec dreaming as a way of "Sorcery that is a return to Paradise".

See also

References

  1. Castaneda, Carlos. The Art of Dreaming. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.